Understated Elegance in a Classic Home

Tightly edited spaces in a Normandy style home make a dramatic statement

st. louis sophisticate 1

Alise O’Brien

A switchback course of abrupt stops and sharp turns led to the design of Bill and Joan Koman’s St. Louis home. "It all began 12 years ago in Colorado, where we were thinking of buying a ski condo," says Joan. "We saw a unit designed by Marshall Watson, and I was so taken with it that I told Bill we had to retain him to design ours." Her love-at-first-sight experience was soon validated in a phone conversation with Watson. Like a couple of teenagers, they talked for nearly two hours. When the Komans’ priorities schussed in a different direction, leaving their plans for a ski house behind in a spray of snow, Watson kept pace, designing two other projects for them. By the time they bought their current home—a stately but poorly aging house in St. Louis—he could nearly read their minds.

Bill and Joan Koman’s seven children and 13 grandchildren love the living room’s sink-down comfort, seen here.

New York designer Watson, above, praises Joan’s impeccable style, and it’s no coincidence that the designer shares her quietly refined taste. "We definitely have similar viewpoints," Watson explains. "After her initial phone call from Colorado, I knew I had to meet this person because she had so much to teach me. In design, we all have our muses. Joan is one of mine. I inspire her style; she inspires mine."

In every room, Watson practiced restraint. What’s absent is as important as what’s present—maybe more. "The spaces are tightly edited," he says. "When you look at the dining room, you’re able to see the gorgeous grain of the woods. You can also see the architecture. Those things aren’t hidden by a lot of objects. Each element is allowed to become architectural, with its own strong silhouette."

A striking testament to that restraint is the entry, where a round antique Georgian table and a pair of terra-cotta urns on columns prove that minimal can make a mega impact. The room’s evolution was a collaboration between Joan and Watson. "We were in New York, looking for furniture, and Marshall took me to see this table with its beautiful wood and ‘just right’ proportions. It was so exquisite we decided to buy it," Joan recalls. "Then I saw these two urns, and of course we had to have pedestals for them. That was what was so fun about shopping with Marshall. There was always this element of surprise. When we saw something we liked, he figured out a way to make it work."

The urns, Watson adds, are a good illustration of pieces with strong silhouettes. Reproductions with a little age on them—he guesses these to be 20 or 30 years old—the urns also have an "exquisite patina" that he says characterizes all the furniture and accessories. In this case, it’s "efflorescence, a white crust that is the result of lime leaching out of the terra-cotta over a period of years."

With only a few furnishings, the entry makes a dramatic architectural statement. The French doors and sidelights are gracefully geometric, with their shape underscored by the round counterpoint of the circle fountain outside.

Because Watson understood what had attracted Joan to the St. Louis house, he was able to preserve those features while bolstering weaker areas and correcting the mistakes of previous decades.

Built in 1938 in a Normandy style, the house was an architectural beauty downstairs. Upstairs, not so much. "It was a disaster," says Watson. "It was a rabbit warren of small rooms. Our challenge was to create more graciously scaled spaces in character with the rest of the house."

Its Normandy style and large scale attracted the Komans to the house seen here.

Going into the attic to raise the ceilings to 11 feet, then adding interest with tray ceilings, brought better scale and detailing to the upstairs. Opening up the rooms to create a large master suite completed the transformation.

Above, the bedroom exhibits the graceful proportions, balance, and careful selections that characterize the entire house.

While Joan describes her style as "classic, understated elegance," she’s quick to praise its practical side. "Not only does it never go out of style, it makes a home very comfortable." That’s important when you have seven children and 13 grandkids, including a pair of 1-year-old twin boys. "Our large family was really why we bought the house," she explains. "Before we could get inside, we peeked in the dining room, and I saw that it was big enough for a table that could seat all of us. I was sold."

Bill, a former all-pro linebacker for the St. Louis Cardinals, is just as content, if not more so. "Every time we go away, he asks why we left, since it’s so comfortable here," shares Joan. "And I agree. Each time we return home, it’s a joy."